I purchased a Leader/Observer route from a classmate at St. Thomas for 15 cents in 1945 at the age of 8. I had 35 customers from 85th Street and Jamaica Avenue to about 98th Street at the old Willard Theatre.

About 20 people gave me three cents, and I paid one-and-a-half (100 percent profit!). One guy on 86th Street and 89th Avenue gave me a huge amount – one quarter. I always hope he answered the door and not his wife.

That was every Thursday afternoon, and I never missed a delivery until 1951, when I won a scholarship to Bishop Loughlin High School.

The editor was Alfred J. Ball, and his right arm was a Miss Cleveland. At the time, the most pages any weekly had was seven or eight. Thank you for carrying on a fine tradition.